Software for Your Head or Essentials of Management

Software for Your Head: Core Protocols for Creating and Maintaining Shared Vision

Author: Jim McCarthy

At least once in their lives, most people experience the incomparable thrill of being part of a great team effort. Members of successful teams often feel a unity of purpose, powerful passion and inspiration, and a strong sense of accomplishment. People who have been on a great team know that the difference between being on a team with a shared vision and being on a team without one is the difference between joy and misery.

After successful careers leading software development teams at Microsoft and elsewhere, Jim and Michele McCarthy set out to discover a set of repeatable group behaviors that would always lead to a state of shared vision for any team. They hoped to design a practical, communicable, and reliable process that could be used to create the best possible team every time it was applied.

In 1996, Jim and Michele McCarthy established a hands-on laboratory for the study and teaching of high-performance teamwork, and in a controlled-simulation environment challenged dozens of real-world, high-tech teams to produce and deliver a product. The teams were given a product development assignment and instructed to envision the product, agree on how to make it, and then design, build, and ship it on time. Repeating these simulations time after time, with new teams building on the learning of previous teams, core practices emerged that were repeatedly successful. These were encoded as the patterns and protocols that became the "Software for Your Head" included in this book.

Software for Your Head is the first publication of the most significant results of the authors' unprecedented five-year investigation into the dynamics of contemporary teams. This book willgive any team the know-how it needs to create its own compelling state of shared vision.

0201604566B12102001

Booknews

Jim and Michele McCarthy worked previously on successful software development teams at Microsoft and elsewhere before establishing a hands-on laboratory in 1996, for the study and teaching of teamwork. At their lab, teams of software developers come together for a five- day product development simulation, with the assignment of forming a team, envisioning a product, agreeing on how it would be made, and designing and building it. Over the past five years, through repetition of this simulation with new teams, the authors have been able to identify core structures and protocols which lead to successful teamwork. They present their findings here as a practical, communicable, and reliable process to guide others in their efforts at effective teamwork. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	xiii
Part I	Check In	1
Chapter 1	The Elements of Check In	11
	Overcoming Distance	11
	The Check In Protocol	12
	The Check Out Protocol	13
	The Passer Protocol	13
	Connection	14
	Problem Behaviors	14
	Patterns Synergistic with Check In	15
Chapter 2	Check In Patterns and Protocols	19
	Pattern: Check In	19
	Additional Discussion of Check In	32
	Pattern: Check Out	43
	Pattern: Passer	46
	Pattern: Connection	48
Chapter 3	Check In Antipatterns	53
	Antipattern: Too Emotional	53
	Antipattern: No Hurt Feelings	63
	Antipattern: Wrong Tolerance	66
Chapter 4	Other Patterns in the Check In Family	69
	Pattern: Team = Product	69
	Pattern: Self-Care	74
	Pattern: Thinking and Feeling	77
	Pattern: Pretend	80
	Pattern: The Greatness Cycle	82
Part II	Decider	105
Chapter 5	The Elements of Decider	111
	Other Decision-Related Elements	114
	Antipatterns	115
Chapter 6	Decider Patterns and Protocols	117
	Pattern: Decider	117
	Analysis of Decider	130
	Pattern: Resolution	137
	Pattern: Work with Intention	140
	Pattern: Ecology of Ideas	146
Chapter 7	Decider Antipatterns	149
	Antipattern: Resolution Avoidance	149
	Antipattern: Oblivion	154
	Antipattern: Turf	158
	Antipattern: Boss Won't Give Power	163
	Antipattern: Team Quackery	165
Part III	Aligning	179
Chapter 8	The Elements of Alignment	185
	Personal and Team Alignment	185
Chapter 9	Alignment Pattern and Protocol	189
	Pattern: Alignment	189
Chapter 10	Alignment Antipatterns	199
	Antipattern: Not Enough People	199
	Antipattern: Align Me	208
Chapter 11	Alignment Patterns	215
	Pattern: Personal Alignment	215
	How and Why Alignment Works	232
	Pattern: Investigate	236
	Pattern: Receptivity	241
	Pattern: Web of Commitment	247
	Pattern: Ask for Help	253
Part IV	Shared Vision	261
Chapter 12	The Elements of Shared Vision	269
	Aspects of Shared Vision	271
	Patterns Involved in the Shared Vision Process	276
Chapter 13	Shared Vision Patterns and Protocols	279
	Pattern: Shared Vision	279
	Pattern: Metavision	287
	Pattern: Far Vision	290
	Pattern: Version	302
Chapter 14	Shared Vision Antipatterns	303
	Antipattern: Blinder	303
	Antipattern: Technicality	305
	Antipattern: Recoil	313
	Antipattern: Feedback	317
Chapter 15	The Perfection Game Pattern	325
	Playing and Perfecting	325
Part V	Appendixes	333
Appendix A	The Core Lexicon	335
Appendix B	BootCamp Material	353
Appendix C	The Core Protocols V. 1.0	383
	Index	425
	Artwork	433
	Authors	435

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